IIT to provide satellite-based education

The project has got the green signal from the state government and a team of professors from IIT, Kanpur.

indiaUpdated: Oct 14, 2006 16:31 IST

Press Trust of India None

The faculty of Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, would provide education via satellite to various technical and engineering institutes in Uttar Pradesh.

The project has got the green signal from the state government and a team of professors from IIT and Harcort Butler Technical Institute (HBTI), Kanpur, are busy giving final shape to it.

The faculty members will deliver lectures and answer queries of students sitting even at far-flung areas using video-conferencing technology, a member of the project and Head of the Department of Computer Science, IIT Kanpur, Phalguni Gupta said.

He said 15 engineering institutions of the state will be taken up in the first phase of the project out of which 10 colleges will be from the private sector and the remaining government run institutions.

Gupta said teachers of IIT and HBTI were preparing schedule of all subjects which will be directly beamed to class rooms of engineering institutions via satellite.

There are 210 engineering institutions in the state but there is a shortage of faculty with necessary expertise. As a result, students passing out of these institutions were faring well in competitive exams, he said.

A centre would be set up at HBTI, Kanpur for this tele-education plan and professors of IIT Kanpur senior staff members of other technical institutions would also be invited for delivering lecturers, he said.